Day 0
I have been playing poker for a while now and today i decided i will start taking it seriously. This is where i track my progress (or quite the opposite), as part of my self improvement plan.

Congratulations on completing your challenge!

Day 1
A couple of years ago i decided 2NLz was unbeatable after 100k+ hands and moved to 5NL where i was surprisingly break-even.

Started with 2NLz today and lost ~2BI, it's the same 2NLz i remember. Playing 2NLz is one of the most demotivating things i have experienced.

Registered on a paid poker strategy site and going to start watching some videos to cover the basics.

Tilt is a major problem, i decided to no longer keep track of results during a session. Someone also suggested meditation as a solution for anger management, going to give that a try also.

Day 1 ended as crappy as expected.

For your mental game, Jared Tendler Mental Game audio. For $19.95 on Amazon, it's the best investment for tilt control if you're willing to put in the work.

Thank you for the recommendation . I will give it a try if tilting gets out of hand, previously, it got better after a week or so, i stopped getting attached to hands.

Day 2
Skipped a day due to a bad cold, but back at it today.

I tried watching some instructional videos but the concepts are way ahead of the level of play i am at.

Had good results, mostly coolers, but they did improve my morale...

I've started to review my top 25 hands after each session and i'm going to write stuff down based on these reviews. I'm thinking of a good way to learn these things, right now i think i'm going to read all of my notes before each session and remove whatever i think is already 'muscle memory'.

2NLz feels beatable, more so than ~2 years ago, my biggest enemy is boredom, i like thinking about poker yet the limit i'm at is as chaotic as they get, if i try to include anything more interesting than opening ranges in my process i usually end up leveling myself. The bad part is that the game gets monotonous and i end up acting from muscle memory when i should be thinking about a decision. I hope my focus will improve with time.

Session length is a struggle too, after 1h i feel drained, yet people talk about 6h sessions, which seem impossible for me right now. As with focus, i hope endurance will improve with time.

My notes for today:
- before B, think whether you bet for value or bet to get a fold
- before X/C, think if weaker hands would actually bet
I'm going to read them before every session until i see these mistakes gone. (i feel like a moron for writing this down, but i have no other way of eliminating mistakes from my game)

Day 3
Lost a buy-in, felt like my cards are face-up almost every hand. I watched a video on C-Betting and going to add what i learned to my game.

It feels like i should fold anything weaker than 2P to any kind of aggression at this limit, nobody bluffs.

Played more tables than usual today, it helped with boredom, which i feel eliminates some of my mistakes.

Took some notes after my session:
- don't call all-ins preflop with less than KK
- before betting to steal the pot, think about your own SD value
- check more with hands that are not vulnerable in order to get more value later

Day 4
Sunday players are super spewy, tightened all my ranges and only bet for value, had a lovely time, +2BI.

I feel like i can play longer sessions if i'm winning. Going to try playing tight today(monday) to see if it works as well as yesterday.

Hey,

After reading your thread so far I would like to stake you and coach you for 4NL-10NL. I'm a 25NL player and I'm trying to start this little project. Please let me know if this is something you would be interested in.

Eoin

Hey Ballerholic, i sent you a PM.

Day 5
Had a slightly losing day, multi-tabling has a negative effect on my game, resulting in some knee-jerk decisions that are questionable. I'm still having trouble with betting when only stronger hands can call but this is constantly reinforced by villains calling my bluffs with garbage hands, it got me thinking that some of my bluffs are way too transparent... this looks like my biggest leak ATM so my short term goal is fixing it.

Tilt is a smaller issue now. (Rant incoming) I ran a flush into quads, then a full-house into a bigger full-house, and i didn't go haywire. My ability to lay down big hands also improved, the urge to call and see Villain's hand is much lower. I hope these issues will disappear with time.

A single note for today:
- before turning a hand into a bluff, think about your line and whether you can represent something or not

Day 6
Played some regular 2NL tables instead of zoom and had the worst session in my life (most depressing), i don't think i have ever felt this crushed ever. I tried not to tilt and succeeded, but after 2 hours of continuous losses to what i consider to be horrible players, i am simply depressed.

These tables are the most random environment i have ever seen and i find it difficult to adjust, players routinely min-donk into a 3b pot, proceeding to shove the next street, people limp and then cold call 3bets (not really a cold call, but almost) with ATC and people never fold. I tried to adjust to this by bluffing less but it didn't seem to work.

The play at these tables felt like monkeys clicking buttons, yet my EV is -3BI, i don't feel in good enough shape to review my sessions so i am going to postpone it to tomorrow, after which i will try again.

Day 7
Played regular tables again, had a +EV day, i'm at +2.5BI. The 2NL play is absolutely ridiculous, it doesn't even feel like poker anymore, the gambler in me enjoys it a little though.

2NL regular tables is a good place to learn the rules of poker but it seems like a terrible place to improve your game. I will try to put in a lot of volume over the weekend and move to 5NL. Right now i feel super tilted so i stopped. Session reviews seem pointless since villains are mostly playing randomly.

Day... i don't know

Going to stop playing regular tables, I have no idea how i'm losing, but it is more tilting than i can handle, i feel openly mocked by pokerstars when i play these tables.

Sometimes it feels like poker is an impossible game to learn and whatever you do, they always have it. This is one of those times.

Over the years i have invested a lot of time in poker but i was never a winning player, nor loosing, always break even, no matter what i did, changing stakes, playing MTTs, spin&go, whatever, i have kept playing with the same insignificant bankroll. I thought that if i watch enough tutorials, read about strategy, post hands on this forum, etc, i will eventually get better and start winning.

For all my efforts, my results are still the same, i still can't beat the lowest limit on PS. Today i start a test, i will play 50k hands at 2NLz, if at the end i am not a winning player, i will stop playing poker forever, since i have no way of studying the game, no results and no more willpower to try.

50k hands played.



2NL is the ****tiest place i have ever seen, you're facing 5 players each hand, with no reliable info, 4 of them are absolutely horrendous, and think about poker in different and wild ways, the 5'th doesn't give a **** and is just playing for the luls, and you have no way of telling them apart.

Hey GL, are you playing on stars?

Keep at it! You'll get there eventually.

Hey. Yes, i am playing on stars.

I'm doing 50k more hands ATM, trying to muster up the discipline to play a steady volume, while learning some principles to become profitable. Once i accomplish those i will move up (at least that's the dream )

I didn't get to play 50k hands, only did ~35k, but someone gave me a little advice/coaching and with little adjustments i feel super strong @2NL. Moved up to 5NL.

I still play far too little volume but i can't seem to get motivated to play more... initially, writing down my plans made me more eager to play, i hope it has the same effect again.

This seems like a good moment to write something here. I noticed that i don't have regular sessions on pokerstars, not ever, i either run like god or the exact opposite, it feels impossible to get a good feel of how people play because they don't make ANY sense.

I recently bought some coaching and one exercise my coach gave me was to pick some hands where i played multiple streets and try to put my opponents on a range on each street. I picked 15 hands and did it and my accuracy was 0, people never played normally, 6/4/1 over 500 hands, shows up with T5o, calls 3 streets with second pair, no problem, players that fold to C-bets 80+ percent of the time on each street, show up with 4th pair on the river, they just call down sometimes... etc.

My stats feel irrelevant, no matter the sample, players are so emotional that their stats can change drastically from 1 hour to another. I am a winning player at my crap stakes, but it doesn't feel like i am winning, it's just so much ridiculous **** that goes on around me, players sometimes dump stacks with nothing and keep my winrate positive, but i never feel like i am a legit winning player.

Ugh, rant over.